I love our block sale every year. Our sidewalks are overly crowded with people and I can smell lots of fresh lemonade from our lemonade sale. We always have a tiny table filled with toys and things that we like to sell. My mom, dad and I sell bigger things too! I got to thinking that this will be a good way to raise money for my causes.

So because next month is our block sale, I will be helping my mom to get ready for it. All of the money we make will be donated to my cousin Suzanne’s Ride for Roswell. Suzanne will be riding in memory of my Grandpa Stockman (Al).

I am also going to see if she will do an interview with me too! Suzanne and my dad grew up together and they are almost the same age. I wonder if she will share some of her memories of my grandpa with me for the interview. That would be really fun.

This week I got a webcam in the mail from SKYPE. My webcam is awesome! THANK YOU SKYPE!!!

So today I want to write down some things about how I can use my webcam to make a difference.

1. I can do webchats with classrooms about small ways to make a difference
2. I can post a video on Artsnacks which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time
3. Spread awarness on the charity of the month by announcing it on my blog
4. Announce  the winners of blog contests
5. Monthly interviews with charity directors in skype. I like to interview the people who I work with during the month sometimes. My webcam will help me do this and see them at the same time!

 If you have any more ideas about what I can do to make a difference with SKYPE and my webcam tell me by leaving a comment!

Today, while I was super bored (my little sister is at a birthday party) and leafing through an old crafts book, my mom opened my 25 Days e mail and guess what? I got an email message from Sara Schoenborn. She works for SKYPE !

HER TEAM HAS DECIDED TO DONATE A WEB CAMERA TO ME SO THAT I CAN SEE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SKYPEING ME! I AM LITERALLY JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND DANCING AROUND MY COMPUTER WHILE I WRITE!!!!!!!! SO AS YOU CAN READ I AM REALLY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom just emailed Mrs. Hernandez at 17 Chances to Help to see if she would like to Skype with me again. Is anyone else out there interested in doing this? I really enjoy blogging and Skyping about blogging and ways that kids can make a difference. This is really cool.

This spring, my cousin Suzanne is doing the Ride for Roswell in memory of my Grandpa Al. I am planning to spend this month working hard to raise money for her, and I would like to kick off an even BIGGER bottle drive in order to do this.

If you are willing to help me out and have bottles that you are willing to donate this month, please let me know. I can come to your house to pick them up. If you drop them off, please knock on the door to let us know or leave them next to our side door! Thank you! All of the money that I make on bottle returns will be donated to my cousin Suzanne’s Ride for Roswell!

You can also donate directly to her ride right here or you can send a check to the address below. I am hoping to interview Suzanne this month too, so I will keep you updated on all of her hard work. I think it is really AWESOME that she is doing this.

Make all checks payable to:
The Ride For Roswell
P.O. Box 644
Buffalo, NY 14240-0644
(Please note my name, Suzanne Manning, in your check memo field)

If you look at my sidebar, you will see a bunch of names listed there. These are mostly teachers who volunteered to put up posters for Compass House! Thank you VERY MUCH!

My friend Kristen works with Suneel’s Light helping to raise money to find a cure for Muscular Dystrophy. Suneel is a boy who lives near me. He is about my age, and he has muscular dystrophy. I’ve dedicated the last month of my blogging to Suneel’s Light. This weekend, I will be returning bottles to help raise money for Suneel’s Light. I had a lemonade sale this month, too, and this was my friend Emily’s idea.

Emily is the winner of this 25 day challenge. I will be making a twenty dollar donation to the charity of Emily’s choice this week, as soon as she lets me know where she would like her donation to go.

We will also be cutting card paper this week to make cards so that Suneel’s Light can sell them at the Allentown Art Fastival this summer.  I am really excited about this because I really like those two things, cardmaking and art!

I’m sad to be wrapping up helping Suneel’s Light but you spreading awareness of it would be really great, and it would be a great way of proving that even making a small difference is really making a bigger difference than you can ever imagine.

The first thing I would like to write about today (or tonight) is my Skype chat with the bloggers at 17 chances to Make a Difference. Mrs. Hernandez invited me to be interviewed by her class. They were the same age as I am.

I thought that everyone was really nice. I was really excited to do this chat, and I am excited for the next skype chat I will have. Mrs. Hernandez said we might be able to Skype again. I felt bad because I was able to see the class but they couldn’t see me. They had a webcam, but we don’t have one yet. I’m hoping that next time we will.

I thought that the questions and anwsers they gave me were really different from anybody else’s. I think that the younger you are the more different your questions are because most adults ask the same things of me, but kids have different questions for kids. Mabey that’s just how I feel.

The kids from 17 Chances to Help asked me really great questions like what kind of music I like. They also said that I have an accent, because they are from Florida, and I am from New York, which was really funny.

I hope that I will get to talk with them again. I also hope you will visit their site because they are blogging about making a difference too!

I have been planning to do a Lemonade Sale to help raise money for Suneel’s Light. My friends Emmy and Julie helped. I want to give a big thank you to Emmy for having such a wonderful idea and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas for allowing her to do the lemonade sale and buying cookies to sell too. We raised $5.00 for Suneel’s Light and that’s a TON of money for a Lemonade Sale. I was really excited about how much we raised. I want to give a big thank you to Julie for helping and advertising, bringing CD’s and helping put up posters and her mom and dad for allowing her to do the lemonade sale. So as a thank you well,

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Today I finally returned my pop bottles and pennies/loose change! I earned enough money to buy 12 gift bags!!! I was really excited about this! I will be donating the gift bags to Compass House on behalf of Cheerful Givers! I hope that the gift bags I made will make more kid’s birthdays happier and brighter, I know that I had fun shopping for them. This would make a great charity project for a group like the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. If you ever want to learn about how to support Cheerful Givers, just email me!

As I walked to my friend Emily’s house a few days ago with her, we thought about having a Lemonade Sale. Emily said that it was a good idea but that there should be a purpose. Emily and I thought for a while and  Emily decided that we should donate the money we raise to Suneel’s Light. The sale will be held in the distant future (sometime this month) so we can donate it asap.

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Talking about Suneel’s Light, I will be working with our family friend Kristen to make some cards to help raise money for Suneel’s Light too. This weekend, we will be cutting the paper to make cards. I think this is going to be fun!

Today, as I walked into Tim Horton’s, I saw a long line ahead of my mom and I. Almost all of the tables were taken up. I was relieved because Laura Rumschik (the interviewer who I was meeting from NeXt) picked us out of a big crowd.

Laura was really cool. She had a really pleasant smile and her voice was soft. Talking with her was relaxing. We sat at a table next to a group of ladies and a messy seat. Laura asked different kinds of questions that other reporters never asked me before. It was cool to know that she really took some time looking at my blog. Laura already knew about Compass House and I thought that that was really impressive. Another great thing I noticed about Laura was that she was younger and that made me relax even more.I’m not really crazy about being interviewed. It makes me really nervous, usually. But Laura was great to talk to because she is only a little older than me. Laura is also a real Published Writer. She writes for the Buffalo News as a NeXt reporter!

At the end of our interview, she even made a donation for Suneel’s Light. I was really surprised by this, too. It was great and nice of her! THANK YOU LAURA!!! =)   

This month there weren’t many donations  to Compass House or Cheerful Givers. Rather than picking a winner who made the most difference, my mom and I have decided to donate $40.00 to Compass House instead. I also made $100.00 from bottle donations to buy things to put in giftbags on behalf of Cheerful Givers that I will donate to Compass House also.

One of the great things that happened this month is that a lot of teachers have planned to put up Compass House posters in their schools. This is a good thing because it helps get the word about about Compass House. My mom will be giving the basket to one of the teachers who puts up the most posters.

I also want to talk about Suneel’s Light. Suneel is a boy who has Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. Muscular Dystrophy wears your muscles down and it makes it hard for you to walk well. People with Duchennes have a lot of other complications too. Suneel is a friend of our friend Kristen. Kristen has been Suneel’s school tutor for many years. I first learned about Sunee’s Light during Christmas. If you click on the link above, you will be lead to Suneel’s Light Homepage. Click HERE to see the blog post that I wrote on December 2!

Since it is the first week of April, I am starting a new contest. The person who makes the most difference for Suneel’s Light in the month of April will win a twenty dollar donation on April 25th to the charity of his or her choice. Please help out by donating to Suneel’s Light!!!

You are probally wondering why I haven’t written in a few days. Well, I have a lot to say today because of lots of busy-ness (biz-ee-nuss). I will be annoucing the winners for the April Showers giveaway as soon as I hear from Ms. Nadler about the people who donated to Compass House during the month of March. There were some people who didn’t leave me a comment or send an email. If you donated, please let me know!

I will be returning my bottles from the small bottle drive I had to raise money for Cheerful Givers soon. I will use that money to make gift bags to donate them to Compass House when I get them. It’s been really rainy and then snowy here, and my bottles are all saved up in my garage. My mom said we can return them this week! I will let you know how much money I got from them and how many bags we donated when I am done!

I want to talk a little about my school tonight (or this morning). I want to first give a big thank you to my school because they have helped and supported me so much this year ( and all of the years I have been at my school ). Also I want to say WOW! I would like to say WOW because my classmates, principal, teachers and friends are so inspiring. I want to really give a big round of applause to Mrs.Nabozny (my teacher) and principal because they have been so inspiring. Just a slight example:

Mrs.Nabozny has been so kind to my class and I. We have had 2 bake sales to raise money for Save the Day For Jay AND another bake sale at a Chiavettas Chicken fundraiser. “Jay” is the father of my classmate. He has ALS, and his family is doing fundraisers to help him. I hope that our class’s fundraiser helped. Mrs. Nabozny worked in the kitchen and let her students work the bake sale. I love my class and my teacher.

So check out my link and follow the sign on it please!

This winter, Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference was nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award, and a lot of nice people have voted for me. I’m in first place for best charity blog right now! If you haven’t voted for me, would you please take a minute to create a free account here and vote for me? It only takes one minute. Thank you!

A few days ago I got a comment from Ari and Sarah from 17 Chances to Make a Difference. This is a blog that an entire class is keeping. I was really excited to learn that they did their blog off of my blog! I was also excited to see their blog because it is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!  Ari and Sarah are Jewish, and they are commanded to do good deeds make the world a better place. In Hebrew, this is called Mitzvot.

Please take some time today to go and visit their site, and bookmark it too to spread the word about the great things these kids are doing! Thank you so much for visiting my site Ari and Sarah! I will be visiting you all the time too. I’ve also added you to my blogroll.

This week I interviewed Karen Kitchel from Cheerful Givers. I got lucky because Ms. Kitchel answered each question with so much detail. Please read below to learn more about Cheerful Givers! I am creating gift bags this month to donate to Compass House on behalf of Cheerful Givers!

1.     What is Cheerful Givers all about?
The mission of Cheerful Givers is to provide toy-filled birthday gift bags to food shelves and shelters so that parents living in poverty can give their child a birthday gift. We believe this simple gesture boosts self-esteem, enhances self-worth, and strengthens bonds in families.
 
I think what’s important about Cheerful Givers is that we provide a way for less fortunate parents to recognize their child’s birthday and Cheerful Givers remains invisible to the child. Also important are the Givers.  We are able to give many people the opportunity to experience the joy of giving to others.
 
We focus only on birthdays because there isn’t another organization that is addressing this unmet need.  

2. Are there a certain number of gift bags you like to see donated each month? What was the most ever donated?
Our goal for 2008 is to provide more than 44,000 children with gift bags, so we would like to see at least 3,666 gift bags each month.  The most ever donated was last year when a group of volunteers from a company called BI (where I worked for 30 years) filled 3,765 birthday bags in less than two hours.  At the same time they held a silent auction and sold box lunches for us.

3.     What part to do you play in Cheerful Givers?
I’m the one (and only) full-time staff.  So I need to recruit and manage volunteers (last year we had 3,878 of them).  Here’s my job description:
·  Managing the day to day operations of Cheerful Givers (e.g. program services, financial and human resource management, publicity, grant management and reporting),
·  Serving as a liaison between the organization and the community,
·  Providing technical assistance to corporations, community groups and sponsored organizations,
·  Increasing the visibility of Cheerful Givers within the community, which includes implementing Cheerful Givers business, public relations and fundraising plans and serving as the Web site liaison,
· Reporting to the Board of Directors on Cheerful Givers’ activities, financial status, needs, new activities, etc.,
· Working with the Board of Directors to identify new opportunities to ensure the fulfillment of Cheerful Givers mission, as well as long term growth of the organization,
· Assisting in the development of the Board of Directors to ensure access to an array of talents and resources needed by Cheerful Givers to fulfill its mission,
· Assisting in the orientation of new board members, and
· Overseeing evaluation of organizational activities. 
 4.     When did you begin working for Cheerful Givers?In 1996 I met Robin Maynard, the founder of Cheerful Givers who quickly became a good friend. When I learned what Cheerful Givers was all about, I immediately felt that it was an organization I wanted to support.  Robin asked me to join her board of directors and I began introducing Cheerful Giver at BI where I worked. Employees got together once each month at lunch time to fill gift bags with toys they donated.  I thought that other companies could do what we were doing and started spreading the word.  In 2003, I did a lot of soul searching and decided to leave my 30-year career at BI to work full-time for Cheerful Givers. That was also the time when the board of directors had realized if the organization were to grow that we needed someone devoted full-time.  

5. What can people do to help Cheerful Givers beyond donating gift bags?
We need funds so that we can continue to sponsor the teens with disabilities and the elderly group and to cover general operating costs.  Aside from that, people can help spread the word about us and encourage others to visit our website.

6. What can kids do to help?
 Kids can do a lot of things – fill gift bags with toys and take them to a shelter or food shelf, they can conduct a fundraiser for us or just help spread the word. ===============================================================

Just a reminder: We have a gift basket to giveaway this month!

What to do to enter?

Make a donation that’s more than $5.00 to Compass House and you will be entered to win an April Showers gift basket with all of this stuff in it! The drawing will be on March 25th, so if you donated, please let me know!

THANKS!!!!

As we all know, sometimes kids and adults don’t use MySpace in good ways but the people at Compass House do! The people at Compass House set up a MySpace page so that they can also spread awareness there too! I think that they are very smart for doing this!

First, I want to thank everyone for wishing me a happy birthday! I had a really nice one and everyone helped to make my birthday special! Thank you so much for your comments. They were a great surprise!

I would really like to thank Coco for

1. Leaving me a funny comment

2. Writing about me on her blog

and 3.  DONATING $25.00 TO CHEERFUL GIVERS!

I also want to remind everyone that I have a giveaway this month for COMPASS HOUSE!!!! It is a gift basket for everyone in the family!! If you make a tiny five dollar donation, you will be entered to win! I’m also going to give you another way to be entered to win! If you work in a SCHOOL in Western New York and you are willing to hang a Compass House poster in your CLASSROOM or in the hall, please let me know! I will make sure we get the poster to you and enter you to win my contest! If you work in any other place where young people are, and you would like a poster, just let me know. I also have fliers and wrist bracelets for anyone who might like to give them to kids and teenagers! If you leave me a comment or send me an email, I will get them right to you.

The more awareness we can spread of the good that Compass House does, the better.

Since today is Laura’s 11th birthday, I’ve snuck on to her blog today to surprise her with this little message: Happy Birthday Lu!!!!! We love you!!!!

Our morning was filled with balloons and flowers and long-awaited presents. Laura headed out the door this morning eager to see her friends at school. She is lookinig forward to celebrating with the cookie cake that she balanced in her hands as she tip-toed across the ice that last night’s storm left in its wake. I often wonder, though, who enjoys Laura’s birthday most? Being the mom is often quite a lot of fun on days like today. Giving is always a gift in itself, and putting a smile on your own birthday girl’s face is one of the greater rewards that parents get to reap.

When Laura decided to support Cheerful Givers this month, I could not have been happier, and today seems like the perfect day to spread the word about this wonderful organization. Cheerful Givers promotes gift giving for underprivileged children. What we like best about this organization is the fact that we are able to give locally. In order to be a “cheerful giver” you may work alone or with others to create birthday gift bags that you may then donate to a local shelter, food pantry, or other organization that services the needy. Gifts are then provided to parents who may not otherwise have the ability to purchase a birthday present for their child. Cheerful Givers provides guidelines that help ensure that the gift bags are filled with items that children will love and use, and they credit volunteers for their efforts by asking you to let them know how many bags you fill, how many volunteers you worked with, and where the bags were distributed.

The Efforts of One Brownie Troop

Laura and I have been in frequent contact with Karen Kitchel, the President of Cheerful Givers, for several months now. This week, Karen shared a great idea with me. In honor of her brother’s birthday, she made a donation to Cheerful Givers so that other children could celebrate their own birthdays as a result. Talk about paying something forward! If you are interested in celebrating a birthday in a similar way, you may make a monetary or supply donation here. There is also a birthday certificate pdf file that you may download and give to someone that you care about as well. Laura will be receiving one of these certificates from our family tonight after dinner, and I know that this last small surprise is certain to make her smile.

“Doing charity work is a wonderfully selfish thing to do,” someone mentioned last week, and I couldn’t agree more. There is so much good that comes from giving, and there is so much joy that it brings to the giver. Discovering this has been a tremendous gift for our family….better than anything that comes wrapped up in boxes with paper and bows.

This month, Laura will be using her bottle return money to create gift bags on behalf of Cheerful Givers. These will be donated to her friends at Compass House. Laura will be back tomorrow, writing about Compass House and Cheerful Givers. In the mean time, we have some cake eating to do!

Happy Birthday Laura! We love you!

Love,

Mom

This month I will be doing an April Showers Prize Bag Giveaway to support Compass House. I have a whole bunch of brand new items to give away that will help you and your family enjoy spring even more. I am planning to give them away by having a drawing on March 25th!

All that you have to do is make a five dollar donation to Compass House right here! If you donate more, your name will be entered once for every five dollars you donate.

Inside the canvas shopping bag (which is good for the environment) there is a kite, a Cirque Du Soliel golf umbrella donated by Sylvia Nadler from Compass House, a bag of 12 hyacinth bulbs, a bag of 36 daffodil bulbs, 8 designer greeting cards, spring colored cooking utensils, spring cookie cutters, a garden stone-making kit, a whole bunch of different flower seeds, and two great books. One is Bloomability by Sharon Creech and the other is Sleeping With a Sunflower: A Treasury of Old Time Gardening Lore by Louise Riotte. To enter, please make a five dollar (or more) donation to Compass House right here. Please forward a copy of your email receipt to me at twentyfivedays(at)gmail(dot)com.  You can also call or mail a donation. Please let them know that I sent you, and then email me or leave a comment too. Thanks! Everyone who donates will be entered to win. The drawing is on March 25th!

I’m also hoping people will support Compass House this month by doing any of these things. The people who make the most difference for Compass House this month by doing any of the things below will win a $20 donation to the charities they choose. One individual and one group will be selected.

• Raising awareness of Compass House by putting posters up in places where young people will see them. I also have a whole bunch of rubber wrist bracelets to give away too. If you would like a poster or some bracelets, please email me! This would be great!
• Raising funds for Compass House by doing a penny drive, a bake sale, or any other type of fundraising.
• Blogging about Compass House or your local safe place.
• Inviting someone from Compass House to speak where you work or where you teach.
• Donating clothing, food, or other needed things to Compass House
• Helping me support Cheerful Givers and Compass House by creating birthday gift bags. I would like to donate gift bags to Compass House so that the kids that come there and the young moms and dads who come there have birthday gifts that they couldn’t afford on their own. I will be writing more about this tomorrow and in the next week too. I have some ideas to help them.

If you do any of these things or have other ideas for helping, you will be entered to win my charitable donation this month. Please let me know what you are doing to help so that I know you are interested in winning!

This week, several people made donations to causes that I really care about, and they emailed me to let me know. So, I wanted to pass this along to all of you.

First of all, I want to thank Leslie for running her Haiku contest this month online. I offered a $15 donation to one of the winners of her contest, and when the winner was announced, she donated this money to Compass House, in addition to two other donations! So, because of Leslie, Compass House received a $45 donation already, and it isn’t even March yet!

I also received a great email from someone who asked that they not be recognized on my blog. This person donated $50 to the Pajama Project! This is the same person who sent me the anonymous tip about the Pajama Program way back in December, which is why I chose to help this cause. Thank you!!!!!

And I have a lot of bottles in my garage right now. My neighbor, Mr. Jung, also has bottle receipts for me too. All of my bottle return money will be donated to Project Linus this month. I will be updating the total amount earned this weekend, after I return all of those bottles. I have to count them yet!

This month, I helped the Pajama Project and Project Linus! There were a lot of surprises during this month’s challenge, but one of the nicest surprises was hearing from Erin from West Seneca! Erin is a teacher, and she collected some pajamas with her students! I just found out about this last week, and it made me really happy.

Erin is the individual winner of this month’s challenge! She will be able to pick any charity or cause, and we will be making a twenty dollar donation to it! Just let us know where you would like your donation to go, Erin.

Lindbergh Elementary School won the group prize for this month. I am going to talk with my principal, Mrs. Parsons, about where this twenty dollar donation can be sent. I want to say thank you to all of my friends and the teachers at school for helping with this. I also want to thank Mrs. Parsons, too. It was fun doing a pajama drive!

My mom has spoken with Mrs. Cardena from the Pajama Program about collecting the pjs and books. And I actually got to meet and work with Christene Lewandowski from Project Linus. What was REALLY cool was visiting Compass House this month and SEEING all of the blankets there that Project Linus has donated in the past! That was really neat.

In March, I am going to be supporting Compass House and Cheerful Givers. I am really excited about doing all of this. I have some ideas for new contests too and some neat prizes this month, so please keep reading. A new month is starting!

A few days ago I went to Compass House to learn more about it before I support it next month. There I talked to Sylvia Nadler, Ellie Bocchino, Michelle Moore, and many other nice people! Compass House is a shelter for homeless kids or kids in crisis. Compass House believes that every kid deserves to have people in their lives who love, care and support them.

When a troubled kid goes to Compass house, they are assigned a case manager who handles their case without judging anything about what happened in the past. They are focused on their futures. The goal with Compass House is to make sure that every kid is safe at home and provide them with a Safe Place to stay when they need it. Compass House has an Emengency Shelter that is open 24/7. The Emergency Shelter is like a house and the average stay is 3-9 days. Compass House also has a Recource Center and that offers a lot of help to those who are ages 16-20. There is an emergency food pantry there and they keep all of the donations they get there too. Young people who are on their own can get food, furniture, clothes, and household items there.

If you are a young person and having trouble at home, are in danger, or are homeless, you can go to Compass House! The people there are all really nice. It is easy to get a ride there too. Just go to any TOPS or MARTINS market and tell someone you need a safe place. They will get you there safely. See the yellow sign at the top of this post? That is the symbol for National Safe Places! When you see it, you know you can go there for help.

You can also get on any Metro bus in our area and tell them you need a safe place. They will take you to Compass House too.

The most important thing to remember is that Compass House works with families to keep kids safe. Parents are always informed when their child shows up at Compass House and help is provided to make sure the child can return to a safe home. Children who are abused DO NOT have to return to homes that are not safe, though. Compass House does not tell any kid what to do. The kind people there help them make good choices that will keep them safe and help them live happier lives.

Thank you Sylvia, Ellie, Michelle, Scott, and everyone else who I met there last week. I had a great visit, and I am excited about helping you throughout March and the rest of the year too.  

Laura R. is from Australia but lives in Japan. She works at an international pre-school and she has also been reading my blog too. This week Laura sent me a big box of things including notebooks for my sister and I, two pencils, origami paper and a whole lot of card making supplies like stamps and paper and stickers. I was really surprised! The label on the delivery box was really cool, too, because it was written in Japanese.

These card making supplies are going to be put to good use too! On Monday, I had a short meeting with our friend Kristen and one of the great ladies who runs Suneel’s Light. Her name is Cheryl. They are planning a huge card-making event and a lot of kids are going to be taking part in it, including me! We will be making cards to send as thank you gifts to those who make donations to Suneel’s Light. I am really excited that they asked me to help out. I am planning to donate a lot of what Laura sent to use at this event.

Thank you SO MUCH Laura! I was really surprised by your generosity. I want you to know that I plan to pay it forward too!

I also heard from a teacher named Erin this week. She teaches in West Seneca, and she has been collecting pajamas for the Pajama Project this month! I was so excited to hear about this. I plan to write a lot  more about this as soon as I talk with her and find out more about the work that she has done!

There are only a few more days left of this 25 Day Challenge! If you have done ANYTHING to make a difference for The Pajama Project or Project Linus this month, please let me know. Those who make the most difference this month can win a donation to the charity of their own choice!

Today, I went to National Make a Blanket day to make blankets for my local chapter of Project Linus. In the picture above, I am holding the first blanket that I made, and the chairperson of our Project Linus, Christene Lewandowski, is standing with me.

I liked Christene a lot. She was really friendly and she made me feel really happy and relaxed. I was kind of nervous going here, because my mom and I didn’t really know anyone, but she made me feel less nervous. I was still kind of shy though. I also met Karen Weisharr, and she helps Christene. She sat with me and talked to me for most of the time that I was there.

This day was so much fun. In the beginning, they introduced themselves to me and gave me a packet of great information about Project Linus, which I will share below, in case people want to help. There was a raffle too! I won a Crayola gift basket. There was great food and pop and cookies too. It was kind of like a big party! I didn’t know how to sew, but I made a tied fleece blanket, and it was really easy. I plan to do this again next year too. For more information about how you can participate in something like this, look here.

I learned a lot about Project Linus today too. Last year, these women donated 2,644 blankets in our area to children who have needed them. Many of these children have been badly hurt in some way, and these blankets help them not to be so sad. Today, these women made over 200 blankets! I made three with my mom. It was a lot of fun.

I plan to donate my bottle returning money to Project Linus this month, so if you have bottles, please let me know. I am also planning on making more tied fleece blankets at home this month and all year now too.

There is a lot that you can do to help too!  If you want to help, make a blanket or a quilt for a child ages newborn through teenager. You can also donate fabric, yarn, or batting. The chapter also accepts donations of postage stamps, gift cards to craft stores, and monetary donations too.

You can donate the blankets you make or material at any of these drop off locations in Western New York:

AC Moore in Blasdell or Amherst

Carriage Quilt Shoppe in East Aurora

Embraceable Ewe in Hamburg

Heartland Quilt Shop in Lockport

Jo-Ann Etc. in Amherst, Blasdell, or Williamsville

Marie’s Sewing Center in Lockport

Pine Grove Quilt Shop in Kenmore

Shear Satisfaction in Hamburg

Donations can be made to Project Linus of Erie and Niagara County NY, care of Christene Lewandowski 5445 Columbia Avenue, Hamburg NY 14075.

And guess what? If you want to know more about Project Linus and our chapter, you can also read Roger Carr’s Everyday Giving Blog. He recently interviewed Christene Lewandowski! Thank you!!!!!!

If you are making a difference for Project Linus this month, please let me know! The person who makes the most difference will win a donation to his or her favorite charity at the end of the month.

Yesterday, I collected all of the books and pajamas from drive for The Pajama Program at Charles A. Lindbergh Elementary School. I want to thank the students and our wonderful principal, Mrs.Parsons for helping me!!!! We collected 25 pairs of pajamas and almost 200 books!!! I was really excited about this because my dad is doing a book and pj drive at his office, but it isn’t over until the end of this month. I have a feeling that I am going to end up with more books than pj’s to donate, but with what Lindbergh students collected and my dad, we will end up with a good amount.

We took a picture of some of them this morning!

Thank you everyone!!

If you live in our area, please consider doing a pajama drive yourself! You can do one at your school or at work too. Right now, the local need is 850 pair of pajamas per month. Mrs. Cardena really needs help spreading the word about her great organization and getting new pajamas to give kids who need them in our area. And if you live outside of my area, there is probably a chapter near you. Check this page to see!

This Saturday I am going to go to National Make A Blanket Day to support Project Linus. Christene Lewandowski, our local organizer, invited me to come and make a tied fleece blanket to donate! I am also planning on donating my bottle return money as well. I’ve still been collecting this month, and my Aunt Kate, Uncle Mike McCartan, and our neighbors the Jungs are all helping me so far! Thank you. The blankets go to kids in our area who could use something to snuggle with. I am really excited about going to this because I get to meet some people that I am helping this month.

Also, my school already got a TON of books and PJ’s for the Pajama Program and I am really happy because it really makes a huge difference for the Pajama Program and I couldn’t do this by myself! Thank YOU everyone who has been donating! Please leave a comment here if you want to and let everyone know how you’ve helped!!!!

Remember that those who make the most difference this month, whether you are one person or a group, will win a donation to the charity of your choice! You have to let me know who you are and how you have helped out Project Linus or the Pajama Program this month. Thanks!!!

Tonight, I picked the winners of the February Valentine card giveaway contest. Everyone who helped to spread awareness of my blog was entered into a random drawing to win five handmade cards, including people who voted for me at the Blogger’s Choice Awards, people who wrote about my site, and people who asked their friends to read too. The winners are:

• Mrs. Toney
• Emily
• Elaine Eppler
• Coco
• Peggy Swiat

Thank you so much for helping me, everyone! I am learning a lot about what helps to increase the number of readers I have this month. I am going to write something soon about everything I’ve learned!

Emily!!! Can you please email me your address? We are going to the post office tomorrow!

Today I got some books and pajamas for The Pajama Program from school! I am really excited about this, and I have a feeling that I am going to get more things tommorow. I think that Mrs.Parsons really helped with this beacuse she put the pj and book drive on our school calendar, reminding everyone to donate books and pj’s. THANK YOU MRS. PARSONS!!!

Yesterday, my friend Sarah W. sent me a great link to a website that you can click every day in order to help animals. Please click over here and make a free donation! Thank you Sarah!

Tomorrow is the last day to be entered in my February giveaway! If you do any one of the things listed